Some see it as a legal loophole for errant government officials. Others view it as a necessary doctrine to protect police officers from the liability for bad outcomes in doing their difficult jobs. But most scholars agree it has turned into something like constitutional quicksand because of the way the U.S. Supreme Court has formulated the doctrine.

Prominent federal courts scholar, John C. Jeffries Jr., the David and Mary Harrison Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Virginia, provided his legal insight regarding qualified immunity as the speaker for the Florida Law Review’s 29th annual Dunwody Distinguished Lecture.

“Qualified immunity is a doctrine that precludes damages where the defendant did not violate a clearly established constitutional right,” Jeffries said. “More fully, damages are barred if, and I’m quoting from the court, ‘a reasonable officer could have believed his or her actions to be lawful in light of clearly established law.’ Qualified immunity is the general liability rule for damage actions against government, and it is the most important doctrine in the law of constitutional tort.”

Jeffries added that while qualified immunity is an important doctrine, it can be a real snarl for attorneys and the courts.

“The instability and confusion of qualified immunity law has been so persistent and so pronounced that one scholar describes the doctrine as existing in a ‘perpetual state of crisis,'” Jeffries said. “Some sense of just how deep the problem is can be gathered by looking at the complexity of the efforts to resolve it.”

Jeffries offered the audience two suggestions on how to make qualified immunity clearer.

“First, the Supreme Court needs to say explicitly-openly-what has been implicit in its decisions for 20 years. They need to say explicitly that they wish to have summary judgment laws applied differently in this area,” Jeffries said. “A second suggestion is to change the doctrinal formulation of qualified immunity. Rather than asking if the defendant violated a clearly established right, I would ask whether the defendant’s conduct was clearly unconstitutional.”

Jeffries concluded that there should be a course correction in the errant law and that qualified immunity should create a balance between the competing values of the importance of damages in vindicating rights and the need to protect officials, which is required to exercise their discretion in hard circumstances.

“Today qualified immunity is out of balance particularly in excessive force cases, and the Supreme Court needs to intervene and help straighten this out. I hope the changes I suggested would be modest steps in that direction,” Jeffries said.

The Dunwody Distinguished Lecture Series was established by the U.S. Sugar Corporation and law firms of Dunwody, White & Landon, and Mershon, Sawyer, Johnson, Dunwody & Cole in honor of UF Law graduates Elliot (JD 33) and Atwood (JD 33) Dunwody, two brothers who dedicated their lives to the legal profession and labored to better social and economic conditions in Florida.

Prominent federal courts scholar, John C. Jeffries Jr., the David and Mary Harrison Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Virginia, will discuss this and more when he delivers the 29th annual Dunwody Distinguished Lecture at the University of Florida Levin College of Law.

The lecture, “Rationalizing Qualified Immunity,” is organized by the Florida Law Review and is free and open to the public. It will be held Tuesday, Feb. 16 at 11 a.m. in UF Law’s Chesterfield Smith Ceremonial Classroom (room 180). To view the lecture via webcast, visit www.floridalawreview.com.

“It is a great honor to be invited to UF to give the nationally-known Dunwody Lecture,” said Jeffries, who served as dean of UVA School of Law 2001-2008. “My lecture will examine why qualified immunity, the doctrine that shields police officers and others from paying damages for violating constitutional rights, is notoriously unstable and difficult to administer. I plan to outline the problems with qualified immunity in an effort to make first steps toward reformulating this controversial doctrine.”

The qualified immunity doctrine protects government officials from liability for civil damages “insofar as their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known.” To determine whether an official is entitled to qualified immunity, the court must (1) identify the specific right allegedly violated; (2) determine whether the right was “clearly established;” and (3) determine whether a reasonable officer could have believed that his or her conduct was lawful.

Jeffries is a graduate of the UVA School of Law, where he was editor in chief of the Virginia Law Review and the recipient of the Z Award for the highest academic averages and the Woods Prize for Outstanding Graduate. Upon graduation, Jeffries clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. and later served as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army.

In 1975, Jeffries joined the UVA School of Law faculty, where his primary research and teaching interest included civil rights, federal courts, criminal law and constitutional law. In 1986, he was appointed the inaugural Emerson Spies Professor of Law and later served as academic associate dean, acting dean and dean until 2008.

“The Florida Law Review is honored to host Dean Jeffries as this year’s Dunwody Lecturer,” said Jon M. Philipson, editor in chief of the Florida Law Review. “As state actions develop in new and unexpected ways, the issue of sovereign immunity becomes even more important to future litigation. There is no one better than Dean Jeffries to bring clarity to this area of the law.”

The Dunwody Distinguished Lecture Series was established by the U.S. Sugar Corporation and law firms of Dunwody, White & Landon, and Mershon, Sawyer, Johnson, Dunwody & Cole in honor of UF Law graduates Elliot (JD 33) and Atwood (JD 33) Dunwody, two brothers who dedicated their lives to the legal profession and labored to better social and economic conditions in Florida.

The Florida Law Review presents its annual 2010 Dunwody Distinguished Lecturer: Dean John C. Jeffries, Jr. On Feb. 16, at 11 a.m. in the Chesterfield Smith Ceremonial Classroom (room 180), Dean Jeffries will deliver a lecture titled, “Rationalizing Qualified Immunity.” This lecture is free and open to the public; everyone is encouraged to attend.

Jeffries served as dean of the University of Virginia School of Law from the fall of 2001 until the summer of 2008. Jeffries joined the Virginia law faculty two years after earning his law degree there in 1973. His primary research and teaching interests are civil rights, federal courts, criminal law, and constitutional law. Jeffries has co-authored casebooks in civil rights, federal courts, and criminal law and has published a variety of articles in those fields. He also wrote a biography of Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr.

In 1986, Jeffries was appointed the inaugural Emerson Spies Professor of Law, a position created to honor a long-time teacher and former dean. Jeffries has also held a variety of other academic appointments, including the Arnold H. Leon Professorship.

During law school, Jeffries served as editor-in-chief of the Virginia Law Review. He received the Z Award for the highest academic average and the Woods Prize for the outstanding graduate. Immediately after graduation, he clerked for Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr., before serving in the U.S. Army as a second lieutenant.